To Lead Is Human – Episode 50
Unlock Leadership Joy: Embrace Vulnerability and Optimism (Brian Danzis)
Brian Danzis: I think being vulnerable is difficult, but it also shows that you’re human and I think it gives people a reason to believe in you and follow your ideas and contribute to them and hopefully take a piece of it and share that on with the next person and we build a big, bigger, better community.
Sharon Richmond: Hi, I’m Sharon Richmond and this is to Lead as human. For not quite 40 years I’ve run a business called Leading Large where I coach C level executives to 10x their impact. They clarify their priorities, energize their organizations, adapt their personal behaviors, and through this, build cultures of accountability and respect.
In this podcast, we help you, our listeners, envision how to supercharge your own leadership. By introducing you to executives who lead with intention. These business leaders exemplify the principles of Leading Large. They know that as leaders, the positional power they have comes with an equal measure of personal responsibility. These leaders not only deliver stellar value to their customers, clients and stakeholders, they also prioritize building organizations that provide purpose, meaning and a healthy working environment for their employees. We’re so lucky to learn from the challenges and successes they have experienced on their own human leadership journey.
Today I’m looking forward to my conversation with Brian Danzis. Brian is the President in North America for Seedtag, the global leader in contextual advertising. His responsibilities include revenues, publisher, partnerships, and management of all the on the ground operations. Separately, he’s also the President of Beast Advertising, a digital media consultancy. Before Seedtag, Brian served as an Executive Vice President at Video Amp, global head of video and live event sales at Spotify, and in executive positions at numerous other digital media companies. And before all that, he cut his teeth in sales and account management at CNN and Comcast after graduating from Ohio Wesleyan University. Brian, welcome to the show.
Brian: Thank you so much for having me, Sharon. Great to be here.
Sharon: I’m really looking forward to our conversation. So there’s certainly a wealth of thought leadership from you online regarding the industry and trends. So today, I’m hoping that we’re going to turn a bit more inward and learn about you as a leader. So with that in your mind, how would you describe your outcome operating philosophy as a leader?
Brian: Well, I started all of my bi weekly all hands reviewing them so I can stay very consistent for folks that are new to the organization or just to reinforce my beliefs on how to run an efficient organization. Some of the things that I value are trust, good communication, transparency, a bias for action. And I’m reaching this point in my career right now too where I’m really trying to talk about joy and really trying to bring joy into all that we do and allow our people to find joy in their own work and hopefully translate that into their own life.
And I mentioned joy because I think joy is very different than happiness. Happiness can be fleeting. Happiness can be just very simply having fun where joy is more eternal and more everlasting. And I’m at that point right now where I want to do things that can impact the larger world, not just our own organization. And every day I get excited to come to work and try and get a little bit better at doing that.
Sharon: That’s terrific. Brian, what are some of the day to day practices that demonstrate that priority for joy? How are you bringing that into your folks?
Brian: Yeah, first is just being just an optimistic person. You know, let’s face it, in our lives are increasingly challenging, difficult, on the go. I have three young daughters, so I certainly feel that from the moment I wake up in the morning to the moment I go to bed. So in work, trying to put things in perspective, we’re a technology startup company, we’re a large company now, but in many respects we’re innovating every single day. And let’s face it, things don’t always go right. It’s not all sunshines and lollipops. Right? So I think over my 25 years in this business and in this industry, I’ve learned to take a step back and think about my reaction to problems, to be more solutions oriented and try and instill that in our people, to kind of take the long road, take the long perspective.
Jeff Bezos says, don’t hire clowns because you hire clowns, you have a circus. That’s kind of my take on that. Because you want people to be level headed and to stop and think, and if something is really upsetting you an hour from now or maybe even a day from now, maybe it’s something worth getting upset about. But let’s face it, most challenges resolve themselves quickly. And not wasting time, panicking about something is one of the things that I like to teach and value.
Sharon: So if I work for you, and let’s say I’ve tried something that was a big stretch and I didn’t do it, great, how would you maybe respond to me? What might you say to kind of help me keep that in mind?
Brian: Yeah, it’s a great question, but I’d first qualify that with no one works for me. And this is a big difference. I think words matter. And I had this early in my career when I was a junior supporter of account executives and you know, they would refer to me as their planner or their assistant. And I just always thought that, you know, very off putting. I want to be part of a team and I am very careful in every email I write to always say we. It may be my decision technically, but I say it’s our decision or we are doing this or it’s our team. So I think that’s a very important classification that some people don’t always get. So I do want to clarify that. I think it’s really important.
And the second piece I think is it’s okay to make mistakes. Hang a big old lancer on your problem. You know, if you make a mistake, own up to it. I’m never going to fault you for making a mistake, but I will be displeased if you try and cover it up, you try and hide it, you try and put blame on others. I think we live in a culture that people don’t have enough personal responsibility and don’t quote, unquote, own it. So I think you need to create an environment where it’s okay to fail. It’s okay to take risks, calculated risks. Obviously you don’t want people just running around just doing whatever they want, but they need to feel confident that you’ve got their back and if they make a mistake, it’s okay. Do a post action report afterward and learn from it. Right? There’s no losing, only learning.
Sharon: Thank you. I share that view along with your point that, you know, it’s interesting what you were saying about joy and generally taking an optimistic outlook. I think sometimes people are like, oh, well, you know, if you would just not be so optimistic, you’d be less often disappointed. What do you think about that? Do you need to be a pessimist or like a hard realist in order to see the world the way it is? Or why do you choose optimism as your backbone?
Brian: No, I would challenge that not everything is going to go your way. I. I also like to say I always have a plan B in case plan A doesn’t work out. Right. And I may have a plan B in the plan singing a plan D actually. So I think not being so tied into your decision and be so stubbornly stuck on it that if it does go wrong, you can pivot. But I refuse to accept that we can’t embrace the world with optimism and that we can work our way through challenges. We should all try and do our best and know that the sun is going to come up tomorrow and if we don’t give our best because we’re trying as hard as we can, and it didn’t work out, then go get them next day. And I think that’s really the only way to live.
Sharon: I love your attitude about this. It’s a little uncommon, I think, in the business world, so I’m really excited to dig deeper into it. Out in the world of product and services, people often use the phrase unique selling proposition. I’m sure you’re familiar with it. If you were to apply that to your own leadership, what do you think is your unique selling proposition as a leader? What attracts people to you besides maybe the optimism and joy?
Brian: In your opening, you talked about how to energize organizations. I love inspiring people. I’m an older brother. Whether it was in college with friends or a sports team or what have you, I just get a real joy out of bringing the best out of people. I think one of the best examples of that really inspired me is I was taking a golf lesson maybe 20 years ago over Chelsea Piers in New York, and this guy was giving me the golf lesson, and we stopped for a second. He was telling me about his own professional story. He worked for Goldman. He was a banker. The guy was clearly super rich, and, you know, he’s now in his early 50s.
I said, what are you doing this for? You’re teaching golf lessons at Chelsea Piers. And he said, you know, I obviously don’t need money, but I love getting people to do things with their body, Making that swing, that awkward golf swing that perplexes millions of people like myself. And I love trying to get them to do things with their body they didn’t think they could do. And that gave me that kind of inspiration in the business world that I want everyone to be their very best. I want them to strive for this exceptionalism, right?
And as a leader, I look to put people in the right positions where they can capture that, where their ideas can be implemented, where their creativity can shine. And again, not make no judgment on any mistakes along the way, but help them develop into the very best human they can be. So my selling proposition is I don’t think I’m a particularly creative person, but what I think I can do is hear someone’s good idea, help them craft it, help them refine it, and then help them take that out and scale it and empower everyone around it to rally behind that idea. And I think that’s when you could truly summon that collective knowledge and power and creativity of teams.
Sharon: I love this thinking that you have about spotting that expertise and elevating it and helping people craft it and refine it. How much of that do you think is your individual leadership style and what parts of it have you embedded in your culture of the organization? How do you embed it? How do you, as the organization has grown, take that really lovely personal touch and build it into the culture?
Brian: You know, I have great founders who have supported me for the last two and a half years here at Seedtag that have really embraced my ideas and given me the autonomy to help build the organization here in North America from the ground up that represented those priorities and those values and quite frankly, my passions. And we have a very warm and welcoming culture. We’re headquartered in Spain, so the culture of the Spanish are very supportive. They are highly analytical, very smart, but also just good people that also want to be just helpful.
I remember my first week on the job, I flew out to Madrid and everyone just was, Brian, we’re so happy you’re here. Let us know whatever you need, anytime. At night, we’re kind of like, we’ll do anything. They knew that the success in launching the US market was pivotal for the overall company and they just want to be a part of it. Everyone just shares the excitement around that. And I think bringing other people into this thinking has helped me exponentially grow it. I don’t like individuals taking really credit for. I never take credit for frankly anything. I don’t believe in that, at least for myself.
But you know, when a salesperson closes a deal, we send it around on an email and you know, who participate, not just the person who closed it, but who helped contribute to you closing that account. Why did you do it? How did you win over the client? And then you have everyone sending reply alls. Amazing work.And there’s memes and there’s laughter and it’s so infectious. That kind of just builds on that general optimism just for closing a deal. And it’s so great to see how people kind of jump over that. I love it. I look forward to it. I clog up my inbox with everyone supporting this team that close to the. I think it’s the most amazing thing. And having that kind of energy feed off of each other and people rally behind it and it just grows and manifests into something so beautiful.
Sharon: That’s great. And what I hear behind what you’re saying is you’re leveraging something very special about emotional intelligence, which is the contagion of emotion. How you show up affects how others show up. And so this building celebrations on top of itself, you know, I can really feel, even as you’re describing it, how exciting it must be.
Brian: It sure is. And the other thing that I just thought of too, which is something we instituted early on, is everyone has their little quips and their sayings. We invented one again my first week on the job. We were, there’s a couple of us that had just started and we were in Madrid for one of these very long dinners that start late in the evening and sometimes you don’t get your entrees till 1 o’clock in the morning. And we looked around and we’re like, who’s better than us right now? And it turned into this rallying cry. Not where we as a team think we’re better than other people, but it was this saying that reflected how grateful for we are for the opportunity to work for a Spanish company, to travel abroad to solve very difficult problems.
And it’s been our kind of motto here in North America for the last 20 years. The whole team, we made stickers for it and all that. And when we thought, okay, at the end of the year, all of our leaders and folks that really overachieved got to make their own stickers and their own sayings. They’re all really about support and collective joy. And everyone just has these little stickers with our little quips that we invented here on their laptops and on their phones. And it was a way to kind of individualize that for people as well. And I would say, you know, this is all great, inspiring people, etc.
But if you don’t get the basics right, showing up and giving your all at the most mundane activities I think is also super important. Right when we opened the office, you know, there’s only 10 of us or so and there was no IT support and there was no office manager. I built many of the desks myself. I hung the TVs on the wall. And some would say, why didn’t you hire someone to go do that, etcetera inside? For being kind of scrappy and me having three daughters, knowing I know how to build Barbie dream houses and everything, you know, I wanted to show that, look, building a business means sometimes getting the Allen wrench out and building the desks as well. I think people would, you know, jump in and help with that. And we really were building things from the ground up and really taking pride in every little aspect of the job. You know, not only engaging our customers and building a world class product, but you know, even just the office of which we do our business in.
Sharon: I think one thing that just keeps reflecting in my mind, picturing you all kind of down on the floor building the desks is, you know, companies spend a lot of money on, quote, team building. And there you are doing team building with something that just needs to be done. And that, I guess, is often how I think about, if we’re going to strengthen a team, let’s do it around the work we need to get done. You know, we don’t need to go like cook a meal together. It’s fun, it’s fine, whatever. But day to day, when you’re the executive of an organization, spotting moments like that where you’re team building real time must be very rewarding.
Brian: It’s very rewarding. It’s gratifying. Look, don’t get me wrong, I love a good happy hour or based in Manhattan. There’s plenty of fun places to have a meal and have a drink and let loose a little bit. But don’t forget the little things to your point, because they go a long way and you have to have that foundational respect for the basics. I go back all the time to do one thing, how you do everything right and give it your best.
Sharon: Say some more about that phrase. The way you do one thing is the way you do everything. How does that come into play in your leadership?
Brian: Don’t just give your best on one or two things that you think are important. Give your best on everything. You know, show up on time. I’m the first one in the office every day and I have the longest commute. But I want people to know that I’m there at 8:30 in the morning and 8 if I’m not traveling, they’ll expect to see me. And I’m approachable and, you know, I don’t sit in an office. I sit out with everyone else and open and available. But that also means being prepared, right? And being prepared means not building together a presentation at the last second and hoping to just kind of skate by.
Do your homework and be prepared and accountable and know your stuff. And we definitely teach that. I certainly am proud to know our pipeline inside and out. I know our people inside and out. I know the names of their kids, I know where they live. Know those things about your clients, know those things about your people. The fires in LA that are going on right now, you know, affected me greatly. I have great concern for our folks out in LA and I’ve been checking in with them literally every single day.
What do you need? How can we help? If you need to come to New York, come to New York. You know, the Company will pay for it. You stay in my house. Like, I’m willing to do that. I just care so much about our people, and I think sometimes people, you know, get lost in the human aspect of our world. It’s very. Look, we’re backed by private equity. I know the numbers matter, and driving a profit is important. But so much of what we do is leaning young men, women, on this path of development and making sure that they know we’ve got their back. And we’re going to help them move the ball down the field, we’re going to help them grow, we’re going to help them get better. And you got to show up every day and how you do that and it can’t just be pat on the back and a review every quarter.
Sharon: So I’m curious, you mentioned people being in the office. It sounds like maybe your people, they’re out on the road a bit, but you also have a corps that come in every day, Is that right?
Brian: We’ve taken a flexible approach to this. I work for companies where they brought in hot lunches every day, and they did that specifically so you would never leave and you would just work constantly. So in this flexible hybrid approach, we trust that adults will make adult decisions. Look, my loose expectations is people are in the office roughly, you know, three days a week. I will encourage them with lots of healthy snacks and a hot meal once a week and happy hours and we play music and I’ve got a shuffleboard table. I thought at first, because I’m an old school guy that was always taught, first one in, last one out, right? Suit and die every day. That’s not the world we live in.
So you got to be flexible. But I’m in four days a week. Hopefully they encourage other people to take similar action. And I believe that if you’re in your office, you have so many more advantages. Your ideas get shared, people see your hustle, you get to collaborate with your colleagues, and that’s where the magic really happens. And thankfully now most, most people have taken to that philosophy.
Sharon: I think that’s really great and very refreshing in a way because I know there’s been just a whole lot of pressure in the world about what’s the benefit of remote, what’s the benefit of in person? And what I’m hearing in your attitude is make it worth coming in for. Pay attention to the people. Don’t have a bunch of Zoom meetings sitting in the office, because you can do those from home.
Brian: Yeah, I had lunch with a publisher yesterday, said the company is literally checking ID scans to see who’s come in and not. I think that is just way too authoritarian and it sends the wrong message. Look, things happen. Your kid is sick, you got to take the dog to the vet or whatever. Fine. Right. Honestly, I don’t care if you work from the moon, as long as you have a wi fi signal and you’re hitting your objectives and you’re a good partner to us. Right? Right. I think that there’s so much value in social interaction and problem solving in person. I, I think you have to let people kind of realize that for themselves and I think many do.
Sharon: You know, it’s interesting. You’re really describing a pull approach to building the good reasons to be together in the office. And it doesn’t feel push, which I have to just imagine people kind of come around sooner. Do you think?
Brian: I do think that. And again, I’ve heard some horror stories about it. And memos going out demanding four days a week, five days a week, and then people share that and it gets out and then that has an exponentially negative effect. Keep it loose. Have a little structure, but keep it loose. Allow people to make decisions for themselves, kind of guide them on that path. For example, I ask that I do my one on ones with my leaders in person. Right. So we kind of need to be here to do that. And like I said, I go to lunch out almost every single day and I do my walks to the train with other people too. So give them a good reason and they’ll see the light.
Sharon: I love this. One thing you said which is treat adults like adults and they’ll act like adults. How do you share that expectation where all adults will do the adult thing and if someone doesn’t, how does the organization talk with them about it?
Brian: Yeah, it’s challenging. Right. One of the things that I’m going to be focusing on this year, I’ve done another organizations is bring in some outside trainers on how to have those difficult conversations. Right. You know, I think first in having those. And I’ve gone through that training before, asking permission from people to have a. Not a blunt conversation, but something that is serious or you want to give feedback. So kind of priming them for that first kind of understanding, you know. One, can I give you feedback? Two, what’s going on with you recently? Right. What’s happening in your world?
Because oftentimes there are things that are happening with people that just not on the surface level, that’s something you can detect people have lives, they’re going through things, they may have a sick parent or going through a divorce or financial challenges, whatever it may be. We’re all have these lives outside of work. It’s kind of the old adage of put yourself in someone else’s shoes, but knowing your people first. And you can detect when things are happening, when they may be a little off. And I think approaching them in that way before something goes wrong, where you have to correct behaviors is the best approach.
Again, that’s why I value that in person time where you can give that feedback quickly, you can understand what may be driving it, really be inquisitive and dig deep on that and be positive around it and give ideas that are less do this because I say so and more constructive and more along the lines of I want to help you get better. This is one of the ways in which you can do that.
Sharon: I have a little course I’ve taught called Fearless Feedback. Literally, you just said the first three principles. Prepare, make sure you’re prepared and you understand what you’re doing. Have a two way conversation and be clear about the experience you’ve had and find out what’s going on for the other person. That makes the world of difference. And part of why I like that approach is it does bring us to that adult to adult, like everybody’s got a backstory. So unless we have a conversation about, you know, how did you think about that, how did you get to that point, what did you weigh? And that just, I guess for a lot of managers and executives who aren’t really sure how to coach someone, you’re creating these coachable moments in every feedback conversation. I put that feedback quote unquote because really all I’m telling you when I give you feedback is my experience of you in this situation and how it ended up
Brian: Exactly.
Sharon: And did it match or not match what I expected and what you expected. So kudos, Brian. You already been through the class, I ought to send you the certificate.
Brian: Fantastic.
Sharon: So one thing that our listeners always say they value are these lessons learned in your own moments of vulnerability. And I’m curious if you could share with folks so they recognize that everyone’s always developing. What is your challenge now? What are you working on and how are you approaching it?
Brian: I’m always working on everything. Again, that’s my mantra of just trying to get better and rethinking how we handle one on ones, how we handle meetings. We just acquired a company six months ago and everyone’s desperate information. How do I share some of that in. In a transparent way, while protecting the confidentiality of what we play to do. So I think it does certainly start with honesty. I don’t have all the answers. Our CEOs don’t have all the answers. So, again, I think being vulnerable is key to it.
I had a tough year my first year here. My mom was sick, my dad died. I separated from my wife. It was tough. I had it all going on. But being at this job really grounded me and got me thought. Focus on what I could control. But being vulnerable means I think I’m being vulnerable right now. Life is not always bubblegum and sunshine, but what other choice do you have but to get up the next day and get after it? And you have that kind of duty. I have that duty to my kids. I have that duty for the people that work with me. I have that duty to our investors and our partners and our clients. And I don’t want to let anyone down.
So I think being vulnerable is difficult, but it also shows that you’re human, and I think it gives people a reason to believe in you and follow your ideas and contribute to them and hopefully take a piece of it and share that on with the next person and we build a bigger, better community. You know, I think the impact one person can have is so exponential and so powerful, we sometimes forget what we can do. In that little smile you can give someone when you pick up your dry cleaning, when you punch your train ticket in the morning, whatever it may be, it can be infectious. And if we all in this world try and just do a little bit better and bring a little bit more joy, I think we’ll live happier, more fulfilled lives.
Sharon: I really do appreciate you being vulnerable in that way. And I’m curious. When you were in that really tough year, what did you learn about your leadership? How did you exercise it, maybe differently during that time, if at all?
Brian: It’s a good question. I don’t even know if I know the answer to that. How did I do it? I just did it. I didn’t have a choice. And I think that is just. My approach is one day at a time, right? And having that belief, that sense, that confidence that everything’s gonna be okay, that I’ll emerge stronger, better. I wanted to build it the right way. And thankfully, I’ve had the opportunity to do that here. Now, two and a half years later, I couldn’t be happier with life or the success that we’re seeing. I’ve never made more money. I’ve never had a team that I believed in more than I do right now. And I’ve never been as confident in a company than what we’ve been able to create here and what we’re doing.
Sharon: So you mentioned earlier how important the use of language is, and I obviously agree with you because I named this podcast To Lead is Human. And I’m curious, what does that mean to you from a leadership point of view?
Brian: Yeah, first of all, being a good human, it starts with that, right? You know, don’t have an ego. I. That is one of the one things I really dislike about many organizations. No one is better than anyone. But recognize that we’re all doing our best. Right. As long as you give your best. Right. That’s key. You know, be forgiving. At the end of the day, we’re not curing cancer here. I’m selling advertising, and I came to this realization earlier in my career is that my impact on the world will not be in how much media I sell or what innovation I bring to the digital landscape.
It’s going to be how I impact other humans and what I can do for them. Can I allow them to be the very best they can develop, earn their success financially and climb that mountain, whatever mountain it may be, and help them to get to experience that joy? And I think that’s one of the great human pleasures you can have in.
Sharon: The broader scope of the business world. You look out and see kind of how the normative business world operates. What do you think needs the most attention in terms of improving leadership?
Brian: I think to your point, people need to be more human, for sure. I think some organizations can be very cold, some can be very cutthroat. Others just speak of culture and then don’t actually practice it. I think letting people be human, recognizing, you know, their contributions and their thoughts and, you know, allowing them to share good ideas, People want to be heard, they want to be loved, they want to be appreciated. And those are all very important human desires. And if we can allow people to have that and then they can pass it along to others, then we as a society win.
Sharon: Thank you so much for that. Is there an additional piece of advice as we wrap up today that you’d like to share with our listeners and I think our listener audience entrepreneur executives of growing businesses? I think we have managers out there who are wanting to become executives. What might you share with them as a practical step they can take toward this more human leadership?
Brian: I think first and foremost, don’t try and rush your career. You got to put in the work. I started off in the TV world and if you were the best of the best, you became an account executive at maybe 28, right? You put in the work as an assistant. You were doing TV schedules, you’re building plan, you were suit and die every single day, right? Not sitting at the adult table, you know, in the conference room. I wasn’t allowed to ask questions. Some of my first jobs and, and now in the digital world, we have salespeople that are far younger than 28 and very successful. And that’s okay, but don’t rush yourself, right?
I think in your 20s, it’s time to learn. It’s an opportunity to learn actually how to work, right? How to prioritize, how to deal with people, how to speak, how to listen, how to prepare. And you need to be able to do all that before you can lead groups of people. And then I’d say my other advice is, the reason why I think I’ve had success is I’ve surrounded myself with great people. People make the business and you have to work with people you trust, people that you respect and vice versa. Of course, they respect you and they have a reason to respect you. You know, you’ve got to do what you say, you’ve got to fulfill promises.
Everyone wants a 20% raise. That’s not always practical, but yeah, we got to give them the reason why. And I just go back to the infectiousness of happiness, right? It’s not the panacea, but that is a supplement I want to gobble up every single morning because it makes everything better and more fulfilling. And if you approach that every morning with gratitude and bring your all, the magic happens.
Sharon: That seems like a perfect way to wrap up. Thank you so, so much, Brian, for sharing about your own experiences, talking about your thoughts about leadership, your approaches to leadership, and particularly how important it is to be a real human being. And I think this was a lovely conversation between human beings, one that I very much value.
Brian: Thank you so much, Sharon. It’s been an amazing time.
Sharon: Thank you. Listeners are going to want to know more about you, your work, Seedtag, whatever. What’s the best way for them to track you or be in touch?
Brian: I’m available on LinkedIn. Email is brian@seedtag.com, very simple, check us out. We’re the leader in contextual advertising, innovating in a privacy first world. And hopefully you see some of our creative messaging out there and you can certainly check our corporate website out or reach out to me. Happy to talk.
Sharon: Thank you so much, Brian, for being here today and for joining on the show.
Brian: Thank you, Sharon.
Sharon: Please stay with us for a moment and I’ll share some takeaways and coaching tips to help you up level your own leadership starting right away. I really appreciated a couple of Brian’s principles about leadership. And so I wanted to start with three things that I thought he captured really succinctly. And also I want to start with three things that I thought he really resonated with and that caught my attention. First, be optimistic and seek joy.
I love the way he talked about this. Like you can have a plan, a plan A, a plan B, even up to a plan D, or further, you can hold your plan lightly enough so that you don’t stubbornly over attach to your own ideas. And that’s a funny practice, I think, in a way to make sure that you’re staying optimistic, staying at the ready to pivot, and focusing on joy. I loved one of his specific practices, which is from the minute you leave your house in the morning or even in your house, smile at the people whose paths you cross and spread a little joy, which I just think is a lovely practice.
The second thing Brian talked about was pay attention to your own actions and reflect on this thought. However you do, one thing is how you do everything. The way I treat that interrupting phone call may reflect also the way that I approach somebody else’s new idea. And I want to make sure that I for one, am being curious and welcoming. I think that’s really what he was saying is notice how you’re doing things and make sure you’re being consistent in the way that you role model your values and principles.
And then the third thing, of course, is Brian talking about finding what you love to do and doing it wholeheartedly and then inspiring others to do the same. I particularly am struck that for Brian, he was really clear to say his joy comes from elevating others and helping them find their own genius and their own place. And that he stated even very directly, he knows his own career impact will come much less from the delivery of his businesses than it will from how he elevates others and how he coaches the young men and women that he feels responsible for.
I think working with the Spanish company has also really helped him and embrace the kind of warm, welcoming attitude and a little bit more casual way of celebration. And he pointed out that he really loves the way the company celebrates, not just individuals who succeed, but let’s say when there’s a pipeline win, they put in their celebration message what everyone did to contribute so the whole team is recognized. And I think that’s just a lovely way to make sure that emotional contagion and joy spreads across the organization.
I’ve got three tips that I want to share with you to help you continue your development along the same path as Brian’s. The first is encourage personal responsibility, but keep your ego in check. Owning your actions and the results of those actions is really important. You don’t want to hide a mistake, you want to bring a mistake forward as long as we get to learn from it. So my tip for you is if you have someone who’s made a mistake and you’re not sure quite how to coach their learning, try this. Have a conversation where you ask, hey, how did you decide what to do in that situation? How did it turn out? What other choices did you consider? And looking back, what do you think might have worked better? So going forward, what do you think you might do next time you’re in a similar situation? That’s the way to coach somebody on your team to learn from a mistake, share their learning, and have a plan for going forward better.
The second tip area is around how to have feedback conversations with your team members and I particularly want to reinforce what Brian said. First, ask permission and second, be curious about what’s going on with them and third, have a two way conversation about your experience and what they meant to have happen. My concrete tip for you is if you want to know more about this, ping me and I’ll send you an outline to the course that I joked with Brian about. We have a class Becoming Candid, Fearless Feedback and I’d be delighted to share with you a brief overview of how we handled that course.
The third tip is and this is a tough one in a fast paced environment, but it’s really important. Take a longer view and encourage others to do so as well. So here’s the coaching tip that I use with my clients. If you’re facing something you have a decision to make, you’re not sure, ask yourself, how will I feel about this decision or issue in one day? How will I feel about it in one week? What about one month? And what about one year? Checking with yourself for the longer view will almost always help you make a better decision that’s in line with your goals and values and strategic priorities as well as with how you want to be perceived and experienced in the world.
I’m Sharon Richmond and this has been To Lead Is Human. You can find out more about me at leadinglarge.com. That’s L E A D I N G large dot com. To Lead I Human is part of the Mirasee FM Podcast Network, which also includes set shows as Once Upon a Business and Making It. This episode was produced by Andrew Chapman. Danny Iny is our executive producer, and Marvin Del Rosario is our audio editor. Hey, I don’t want you to miss any upcoming episodes, so follow us in a couple places. On YouTube, you can follow us on Mirasee’s FM channel, and you can follow on any of your favorite podcast players.
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